For inmates, jail library offers escape.

Byline: Bob Welch The Register-Guard

I've been on library tours before, but nothing quite like the one I took Tuesday.

Before I entered, the authorities made sure I wasn't carrying anything dangerous. The folks checking out the books wore jumpsuits. And the elevators that took us between floors had no buttons.

Instead, Lane County special deputy Joe Pishioneri would hold up three fingers to signify "third floor" and the folks watching us from cameras would program our destination from their hidden perches above.

Welcome to the Lane County Jail, an intriguing juxtaposition of freedom and confinement, where authorities want inmates to be able to escape into the world of, say, Louis L'Amour, but are concerned enough about other kinds of escapes that the elevators can't be operated by someone in them.

"I get requests for the classics: Voltaire, James Joyce, Shakespeare," volunteer librarian Charlene Sabini says. "You'd be surprised what inmates like."

The most popular authors, she and Pishioneri say, are L'Amour, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, John Grisham, Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy.

Since Sabini arrived on the scene last July, she's distributing about 1,100 books a months to seven "libraries" - a few stacks of shelves tucked here and there.

Westerns and sci-fi are big, the latter particularly with female inmates, who comprise about 15 percent of the prison population.

"A lot of our Hispanic prisoners read poetry," Sabini says.

The most popular magazines are Time, Newsweek, Popular Mechanics, Car & Driver and Field & Stream. Atlantic Monthly, American Heritage and Forbes do surprisingly well. And artists, in particular, like Audubon because, Sabini says, they'll use birds as models to draw.

"They eat National Geographic like candy," Pishioneri says.

Sports Illustrated is hot, too, though you can forget the swimsuit issue. "There'd be fights if we allowed that in here," he says.

In fact, the jail doesn't allow any kind of sexually explicit books or magazines. Also off limits are gang- and hate-crime-related material. "We don't allow anything that glorifies criminal activity," Pishioneri says. "But most murder mysteries would be OK."

No more than 10 books can be "checked out" at a time. "We don't want huge stacks that could be used for fires." Large and hardbound books are no-nos because they could be used as weapons.

On the other hand, some books are required by law to be available: religious material such as the Bible, the Koran, Book of Mormon and others. Law books, too.

All this considered, why should criminals be allowed the satisfaction of reading?

Pishioneri and Sabini say that convicted murderers and rapists are in state facilities. That some of the inmates are awaiting trial and, thus, may be innocent. And that, regardless, all are human beings.

"In a 27-square-foot cell, you can only count the bricks and squares in the vents so many times," Pishioneri says. "What else are their minds going to do but think of hurt?"

"Literature contributes to the peaceful passage of time and the opportunity to better the mind," Sabini says.

Deputies and other jail personnel like the calming effect of books. "Without these books and magazines, we'd have significantly more behavior management problems," Pishioneri says.

"This is their - no pun intended - only way of escaping. They can float with the stars in `Star Trek' and ride the plains with Louis L'Amour."

At no cost to taxpayers. The books are all donated - Smith Family Books is the largest supplier - and Sabini volunteers.

In one of the libraries, I found well-worn copies of "The Hobbit," "I'm OK, You're OK" and "Chicken Soup for the Golfer's Soul."

The only type of book, says Pishioneri, that the jail is short on?

Humor.